IF Vladimir Romanov has the brass neck to turn up at the League Cup Final in March, I hope the Hearts fans give him hell.

IF Vladimir Romanov has a shred of decency he will steer well clear of Hampden on March 17.

Which means he’ll probably roll up for the League Cup Final to sit in the best seat in the house and look out over ‘his’ people.

If it happens and Romanov and his cronies are sitting there like members of the old Politburo, I hope the Hearts supporters shake him out of his complacency by giving him hell.

Romanov has abandoned this club to its fate after becoming fed up playing with it. Yes, he continues to pay the players and staff – occasionally on time – but has refused to spend another penny on taking the club forward.

In effect, he is feeding the family but not paying the fuel bills. Hypothermia has set in and the club is on a life- support machine, generated only by the generosity of a fanbase that found £1million to back the share issue which stopped Hearts from flat-lining before Christmas.

That, and reaching the League Cup Final, is the reason Hearts will keep beating until the end of the season.

Romanov tucked his head beneath the parapet as the club struggled to survive. All he did was sanction communiqués from the Hearts website, urging fans to dig deeper.

Kids were emptying their piggy banks to keep Hearts alive, for God’s sake, yet Romanov wanted more. And refused to put in a penny more of his own money.

The Jambos kept giving because they couldn’t let their club die. They were being taken for Heart of Muglothians but what was the alternative? Apathy would have killed their way of life.

Inside the club, something stirred as well. A defiant unity rose to the surface.

I covered Hearts for the evening paper in Edinburgh during the Wallace Mercer era and Tynecastle had soul back then. Everyone from Mary the tea lady to the owner were part of the family from which warmth emanated.

Chris Robinson and Leslie Deans, who followed, didn’t have Wallace’s charisma – Mercer made Charles Green sound like a Trappist Monk – but they were Hearts men through and through.

When they left, everything changed. The very fabric of the club, its good-heartedness, was worn away.

A succession of managers tried but could not satisfy Romanov.

One by one they went until the current boss was plucked from Raith Rovers to make it work with kids.

A Billy Big Time would have told Vlad to get lost.

So many bosses with egos bigger than their ability wouldn’t have touched with a barge pole the remit John McGlynn accepted. But McGlynn is Hearts daft. He’d worked with the club’s youth players under Jim Jefferies and knew the way Hearts operated.

He believed he could make it work and in the middle of the most traumatic spell in he club’s history, he has guided them to a major cup final.

If Hearts win the League Cup McGlynn should be a real contender for manager of the season. Neil Lennon leading Celtic to the last 16 of the Champions League will probably result in a landslide victory but if McGlynn wins a trophy this term, it would be an incredible achievement.

He took over a train crash at Tynecastle in the summer. The Scottish Cup was in the trophy room but many of the players who won it under Paulo Sergio had gone the way of the manager and been cut loose.

Four players scored the five goals in the Final and only one of them, Darren Barr, will play in the League Cup Final.

Rudi Skacel, who bagged two, and Ryan McGowan have gone. Danny Grainger has a cruciate knee injury – and midway through his rehabilitation was told he won’t get a new deal.

It seems a callous way to treat an injured employee but Grainger will go the same way as so many stalwarts in the recent past.

McGlynn was told to play kids because the seniors were on too much dough.

Skacel, McGowan, Ian Black, David Templeton, Craig Beattie, Suso Santana, Stephen Elliott, David Obua, Marian Kello...one by one they left to be replaced by boys who’d take a year to grow a moustache for Movember.

He has ushered those left behind past a situation where the future of the club was in doubt and to a degree still is.

He suffered a transfer embargo and even now can only bring in Under-21 players – and only if he gets a body out the door first. Oh, and the new man has been earning less than the guy who exited.

There have been times they’ve looked out of their depth – Celtic Park a fortnight ago springs to mind – but McGlynn has never stopped trying. He’s pulled a couple of rabbits out the hat by securing Liverpool youngsters Danny Wilson and Michael Ngoo.

And with a team whose average age was just over 22 on Saturday, they reached a national cup final.

Hearts are lucky to have McGlynn and another Jambo, Gary Locke, at the helm because they will do all they can to ensure their club survives.

They are honourable men. If Romanov deflects the attention from what they’ve achieved by turning up at Hampden it will be an affront to them and the fans who have saved Hearts.